ACCA exams in order: all 13 papers explained

There are a maximum of 13 ACCA exams, and you sit them across three levels: Applied Knowledge, Applied Skills and Strategic Professional. Taking the ACCA exams in order means starting with Business and Technology (BT), Management Accounting (MA) and Financial Accounting (FA), working through six Applied Skills papers, and finishing with four Strategic Professional exams, two of which you choose yourself.

The three levels, explained in a line each: Applied Knowledge covers the essentials of business and finance, Applied Skills applies them at the depth expected of a finance graduate, and Strategic Professional tests senior-level judgement. This guide walks through every paper in the order most students sit them, then covers booking, time limits, the Ethics module and the work experience requirement.

How many ACCA exams are there?

ACCA states that students complete a maximum of 13 exams, depending on prior experience and qualifications. They break down as three Applied Knowledge papers, six Applied Skills papers, two compulsory Essentials papers and two Options papers chosen from four. The only choice you make along the way is which two of the four Options to sit.

The word maximum matters. If you already hold a relevant degree or accounting qualification, ACCA can award up to nine exemptions, and only against the Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills levels. Nobody is exempted from Strategic Professional, so everyone sits at least the final four.

Here is the full ACCA papers list, level by level, in the order you would normally sit them.

Fifteen rows, 13 exams: at Strategic Professional you sit both Essentials papers but only two of the four Options. Within each level you have some flexibility over sequence, but the order above is the one the syllabus is designed around, because later papers build directly on earlier ones.

Applied Knowledge: the first three papers

The Applied Knowledge exams are the on-ramp. ACCA's qualification specification describes all three as two-hour computer-based exams with a pass mark of 50%, made up of objective test questions.

BT: Business and Technology

BT covers how organisations are structured, governed and led, the main business functions, and professional ethics. It is the gentlest introduction to ACCA and has the highest pass rate of any paper: 87% in the December 2025 sitting, according to ACCA's published pass rates. Our ACCA BT exam guide breaks down the format question type by question type.

MA: Management Accounting

MA moves into the numbers: costing, budgeting, variances and performance measurement. ACCA's examiner reports note that calculation questions make up roughly half the exam and that candidates tend to do slightly better on narrative questions than calculations, so question practice is the whole game. There is more detail in our ACCA MA exam guide.

FA: Financial Accounting

FA teaches double-entry bookkeeping from first principles through to preparing basic financial statements. It quietly underpins FR and SBR later in the qualification, so it rewards real understanding over memorised journal entries.

Applied Skills: the middle six

The Applied Skills level applies those foundations at graduate depth, and pass rates dip noticeably here. If you want to know which papers bite hardest, we have compared the hardest ACCA exams separately.

LW: Corporate and Business Law

LW is a broad tour of the legal framework businesses operate in, from contracts and employment to company structures. It is the last paper available on demand, so many students sit it early and keep their momentum going.

PM: Performance Management

PM builds directly on MA, adding decision-making techniques and control in messier, more realistic scenarios. The pass rate was 45% in the March 2026 sitting, per ACCA's results announcement, and the examiner's reports repeatedly warn that generic answers not applied to the scenario will not score full marks.

TX: Taxation

TX covers the tax system as it applies to individuals and companies, and UK students usually sit the UK variant. It is systematic rather than conceptual: learn the rules, then practise the computations until they are routine.

FR: Financial Reporting

FR extends FA into full accounting standards and group accounts. Expect to prepare and interpret consolidated financial statements, a skill SBR later assumes you already have.

AA: Audit and Assurance

AA walks through an external audit from planning to reporting. Its March 2026 pass rate of 43% partly reflects a habit the examiners call out constantly: rote-learnt lists of standard tests, reproduced without any link to the scenario, earn very few marks.

FM: Financial Management

FM is about money decisions: investment appraisal, working capital and sources of finance. It pairs naturally with PM and leads into AFM at the final level.

Strategic Professional: Essentials plus your two Options

The final level mixes compulsion and choice. ACCA states you must complete both Essentials exams and choose two of the four Options.

SBL: Strategic Business Leader

SBL is a single case-study exam that mimics board-level work: you read an organisation's situation and respond as an advisor or leader. It tests professional judgement and communication as much as technical knowledge.

SBR: Strategic Business Reporting

SBR takes financial reporting to expert level. The question is no longer whether you can apply an accounting standard, but whether you can critique it and explain its effect to investors and other stakeholders.

The four Options: choose your specialism

AFM suits future treasury and corporate finance specialists. APM deepens PM into strategic performance management. ATX is the route for tax careers, and AAA is the natural pick for anyone aiming at audit practice. Choose the two that match where you want to work rather than the two rumoured to be easiest: APM and AAA have consistently shown the lowest pass rates of any papers in ACCA's tables, and genuine interest counts for a great deal at this level.

Booking your exams: sessions versus on-demand CBEs

The 13 papers split into two booking systems. BT, MA, FA and LW are on-demand computer-based exams: ACCA states you can sit them at any time of the year, your result appears on screen immediately, and it is uploaded to your account within 72 hours.

Every other paper is a session exam. ACCA holds four sessions a year, in March, June, September and December, and session results arrive roughly six weeks after the exam. That rhythm shapes most study plans from PM onwards, because you are always working towards a fixed date.

There is no rush at the start: ACCA's rules say passes at Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills never expire. How you spread the papers out is up to you. ACCA says working and studying at the same time is the quickest route, qualifying in as little as three or four years. We have written a realistic look at how long ACCA takes alongside a full-time job, and an honest answer to whether you can self-study ACCA without a tuition provider.

After the exams: the PER and the Ethics module

Passing all 13 papers does not make you an ACCA member by itself. You also need the Practical Experience Requirement: a minimum of 36 months of relevant work experience and nine performance objectives, verified by a practical experience supervisor. Most people build this up while studying, which is why the work-and-study route is standard.

Finally there is the Ethics and Professional Skills module, which every student must complete. ACCA advises doing it before the Strategic Professional exams because its content feeds directly into them, and ACCA's fees page currently lists it at 83 GBP.

Frequently asked questions